After a promising opening by Malvern which took them deep into visiting territory, Amersham turned over the ball and ran it quickly from defence. The ball went to touch, Amersham put in the catch and drive and their lock Cato opened the scoring. Missed tackles by Malvern as Amersham gave a demonstration of how to counter attack at speed led to four more tries in the first half hour, giving the visitors their try bonus well before half time. Malvern then lost Dave Smith with an arm injury, to be replaced by Nick Tisdale and they started to put together some good phases which ended with a fine score by Luke Milton. Milton was then involved in the next move, making a fine break and feeding the ball inside to TJ Harris, whose close support saw him burst through to bring the score back to 12-31 after Tom Redfern’s conversion. The beginning of the second half saw Amersham reassert their superiority, as Malvern lost the ball and first won a kick and chase, then failed to stop a tap and go move to score two more tries. Some aimless kicking also served just to play into Amersham’s hands quite literally, allowing them to run the ball back at speed into the Malvern red zone time after time, only some good defensive work halting a further turning over of the scoreboard. With ball in hand, Malvern looked more confident, and they fought their way back, Redfern’s quick tap penalty putting Ryan Watkins in for a converted score, but lax defence when Amersham responded with a similar move saw their centre burst through almost unopposed. Malvern never gave up and went on a foray upfield which ended with a try from Nick Miller which Redfern converted, giving Malvern a try bonus. However, once more Amersham responded and bagged another soft try as quickness of thought once again beat Malvern’s defence. The Spring Lane side responded once more and put in some excellent work to get into the Amersham 22 metre area and miller again powered over to score and set up a Redfern conversion. In the dying minutes of the game and with Malvern tiring, the visitors rounded off a fine performance with two more tries, although the second was the result of a clear forward pass. However, they were worthy winners on the day, and Malvern were later grateful to learn that next week’s opponents, Avonmouth OBs, had suffered a shack defeat against basement club Maidenhead. It was apparent that Malvern need to work on their ball retention and to step up their defensive effort as they prepare for Saturday’s crucial game at Avonmouth. With the Bristol side only one point above Malvern and having suffered the setback of a defeat, it is very much a winner takes all match in prospect, and Malvern hope for a vocal travelling support to back the team.